Saturday, September 8, 2018

China's strategy

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14-17 China’s Communist Party is writing itself into the articles of association of many of the country’s biggest companies in a blow to investor hopes that Beijing would relax its grip on the market. More than 30 Hong Kong-listed state-owned enterprises, representing more than $1,000,000,000,000 in market capitalisation, have this year added lines to their central documents that place the party, rather than the Chinese state, at the heart of each group. New phrases injected into the articles of association in recent months include describing the party as playing a core role in “an organised, institutionalised and concrete way” and “providing direction [and] managing the overall situation”. https://www.ft.com/content/a4b28218-80db-11e7-94e2-c5b903247afd

6-28-18 Duncan Lewis, director-general of the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO), recently told a parliamentary hearing that that espionage and interference activities have reached new and dangerous heights. "The grim reality is that there are more foreign intelligence officers today than during the Cold War, and they have more ways of attacking us," Lewis said. Though the federal government had remained hush on theclassified reportthat spurred its foreign interference laws, a number of media outlets have reported that a year-long inquiry found attempts by the Chinese Communist Party to influence Australian politics at all levels. The report also described China as the country of most concern to Australia. Earlier this year the author of the report, John Garnaut, testified to the US House Armed Services Committe aboutattempts to interference and influence Australian politics and society. Since then two bills have been introduced in Congress to uncover Chinese political influence campaigns. https://www.businessinsider.com/australia-passed-foreign-interference-laws-amid-china-tensions-2018-6

9-7-18 Captain James Fanell, a retired senior US Navy intelligence officer who has focused on China’s Navy for 30 years, says: “Across the vast expanse of Oceania, China’s deepening economic and political relationships have paved the way for port leases and maritime construction efforts that serve the PRC’s global power projection vision, and threaten free nations’ security interests,” says Fanell. “It is making a powerful play for this resource-rich, strategically crucial region, from the continent of Australia to the least-populated island nations.”

China has growing geostrategic interests in the region. It is the largest trading partner with Pacific Island countries, with trade totaling US$8.2 billion in 2017.

Beyond its trade interests, Beijing’s enhanced engagement with the region is driven by “its broader diplomatic and strategic interests, reducing Taiwan’s international space, and gaining access to raw materials and natural resources,” says the Commission report, entitled “China’s Engagement in the Pacific Islands: Implications for the United States.”…

Beijing’s strategy for achieving its aims in the Pacific Islands is well-established and predicable, says Fanell. It starts with financial aid, political donations and investment that pave commercial inroads and an increase in Chinese migration to the region. After co-opting government officials, invariably a PLA Navy-related military objective emerges, he says….

Recent media reports suggest China aims to establish a naval base at Vanuatu. While Vanuatu’s government and Chinese officials deny such plans exist, Beijing initially denied it had plans for the military base it has since established at Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa. The base, a 200-acre heavily-fortified facility dubbed by at least one analyst as a “mega-fortress”, became operational in August 2017 and is China’s first such overseas facility. Described by Beijing as a “logistics base”, the strategic facility is in reality a launch pad that allows PLA Navy and Marine forces assigned there to conduct a wide range of military operations in the region….

Spanning across Oceania, China is also showing deep interest in the Federated States of Micronesia, Tonga, the Solomon Islands, Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa. Each island nation, analysts say, provides potential military logistics and intelligence facility sites….

Ultimately China seeks to block US influence and military capabilities in the region, says Fanell, and it is employing so-called “political warfare” to achieve that aim. http://www.atimes.com/article/chinas-plan-for-conquest-of-the-south-pacific/

9-7-18 “Let me put it this way: the development of Black Rock has been backlogged for quite some time now due to financial restraints,” Captain Duaibe, Fiji Military Forces’ chief staff officer for co-­ordination, told The Australian. “China had had an interest in that for quite a while but it seems that I would say, I think Australia played their cards right in terms of tabling a holistic offer, something that China was a bit reluctant to … (They were) asking us to do certain parts of the development while they come in as a partner to do other developments."...

Fiji has a close policing relationships with China. It signed a police co-operation deal with Beijing’s Ministry of Public Security in 2011 that involves sending Fiji police to China for training. This year China gave Fiji 50 police vehicles. https://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/defence/australia-beats-china-to-funding-fiji-base/news-story/60d05ca8eb2bec629080c2c844255bbd

Two years later, in the Morrison Lecture, reflecting on the icy age, Rudd described three chilly scenarios: (1) China as threat; (2) China as direct competitor with the US for control of the international system; or (3) China as self-absorbed mercantilist bully.

The diplomatic pressure Beijing applied to Rudd threw up a notable document: the terms of the ceasefire negotiated in the Australia–China joint statement in October 2009.

The ceasefire embraced a ‘comprehensive relationship’, acknowledged ‘differences of one type or another’ and pledged to ‘properly handle differences and sensitive issues in accordance with the principles of mutual respect, non-interference and equality’. https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/big-chill-china-australia/

East Turkestan: Chinese Separation Policy is Ripping Apart Uyghur Children and Parents

An advanced system is set in place to weaken cultural and family ties and even forcibly separate Uyghur children from their parents. Recent reports have shown that as many as one million Uyghurs are held in “re-educations” camps. A new report reveals that the children of the incarcerated are placed in de facto orphanages – even when grandparents plead to take care of them. In these institutions, children undergo brainwashing, are taught to hate their parents and love the Chinese Communist Party. Other activities include disallowing children to visit family members abroad, as well as making children spy on their parents by incitement from their school teachers. ...

In December 2017, Xinjiang authorities mobilized more than a million cadres to spend a week living in homes primarily in the countryside. … In early 2018 Xinjiang authorities extended this “home stay” program. Cadres spend at least five days every two months in the families’ homes. There is no evidence to suggest that families can refuse such visits.

The visiting cadres observe and report on any “problems” or “unusual situations”--which can range from uncleanliness to alcoholism to the extent of religious beliefs--and act to “rectify” the situation. http://unpo.org/article/21061